Wireless data gathering devices may be used in many environments. For example, they may be used in warehouses for gathering data related to the goods being received and shipped out of the warehouse. They may also be used for performing inventory in warehouse or merchant facilities. They may also used in medical environments for gathering medical data from patients.
Such a wireless data gathering device may be implemented as a transceiver device including memory for storing data received by the device. In a warehouse or merchant environment, data may be entered by a user checking shipments into and/or out of in a warehouse, and/or for determining goods-on-hand during inventory. In a medical facility, such as a hospital, the wireless transceiver data gathering device may include electrodes to be attached to a patient and circuitry to derive data representing patient medical parameters (e.g. EKG, temperature, SpO2, etc.). Data gathered and stored in the transceiver device may be transmitted wirelessly to a remote location, such as a centralized data monitoring system where such data is saved and/or analyzed.
At the end of a use session, the wireless data gathering device is prepared for the next session. This generally includes removing data from the wireless data the wireless data gathering device, recharging the device and preparing the memory for the next session of use. Manual intervention may also be required to delete associated data from the remote location.
In particular, in medical enterprises such as hospitals, when a patient is discharged, the medical monitor is disconnected from the patient. It is required that information related to the previous patient be removed from the monitor and that memory within the monitor be allocated to receive information related to a new patient to which the monitor is to be attached. To do this, a nurse must disconnect the monitor from the patient, and observe and notate (mentally or by written note) the monitor device identifier and/or patient identifier. The nurse then physically navigates through the computer system of the monitor (or the central monitoring station if the monitor is assigned to one) using a trim knob, keyboard and/or mouse, to select and activate a ‘discharge’ function for that particular monitor device. This requires time and energy of nursing personnel. In addition, in a hectic hospital environment, such as an emergency room, a busy nurse may be interrupted before the completion of the manual intervention required to select the monitor device and remove previous patient information. This function is critical to prepare the monitor for new information to avoid serious consequences which may occur due to merged patient information or inability to monitor patients.
Requiring manual intervention to perform activities which are typically performed at the end of a session is burdensome, error prone, and wastes time and energy of users. A system which can reduce or eliminate the required intervention while preparing the wireless transceiver device (patient monitor) for the next session (patient) is desirable.